Representatives from the renewable energy industry called on Congress to strengthen national renewable electricity standard (RES) proposals in legislation before the House and Senate and seize a historic opportunity to put the U.S. on a path for increased renewable energy and clean jobs.

"Not only is a strong federal RES necessary if we want to build up renewable energy sources in this country, it's critical if we want to build a strong renewable energy economy and create new jobs," says Sen. Mark Udall, D-Colo. "Wind and solar energy companies alone have brought over 3,000 new jobs to Colorado, thanks, in part, to our renewable electricity standard. With a strong national RES, we could create hundreds of thousands of clean energy jobs across the country."

Executives from the renewable energy industry met with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and told the leaders that current RES provisions will not result in renewable energy deployment or new clean energy jobs in the near term. The group also says that the U.S. will fall behind other countries, and jobs that would otherwise be created domestically will move elsewhere.